Hey Y'all,
I wanted everyone to know that on Friday, April 29 on a sunny afternoon on a beautiful beach in NW England i asked Susannah Lyth to marry me and she said, Yes!(after a slight pause).
That is the short story, now for more of the juicy details. For some of you this may be the first you have heard that i even had a girlfriend, for others that is old news. If you call 5 months, old news that is. Yes, the relationship has moved along swiftly, swiftly and wonderfully. I can not in a few words write about these past few months but suffice to say that I fell in love with the most lovely little english lass you can imagine. I was not expecting to stay in England let alone fall in love, but love strikes in the most unexpected and strange ways. And it struck me.
On the day of our engagement, I picked her up and we drove two hours down to the SW corner of the lake district to the coast of the Irish Sea. I had made arrangements for a 2 hour horse back ride along the beach(she loves horses). When we got there they made us fill out some forms asking how much experience we all had. I checked off all the boxes saying i could trot, canter, gallop, etc. To my horror they then said they needed to give us a quick test in the ring before we set off. I ride horses once a year at Young Life camps for about an hour ride and i have no idea how to trot or anything. I started sweating, especially with 7 women looking on and me the only guy there. Susannah trotted around like a pro and then my turn came. Lets just say that i nearly lost my stirrups, lost control of my horse and bounced around all over the saddle, the guides were not impressed, Susannah had her head in her hands. After a quick change of horses, they thought it better to put me on the old steady grandpa horse, we set off to the beach. The ride was wonderful after that and we had some fantastic galloping on this beautiful beach with the tide all run out.
The ride ended back at the barn and i got one of the guides to give a treasure map i had made to Susannah. I had driven down two days before early in the morning and buried a treasure chest at the beach(i worried the whole time that someone would find it). She was wondering what the map was all about and what i was up to. She started getting a little scared at this point and needed some encouragement to follow the map. Eventually she located some landmarks and she found a white stone that "marked" the spot and started to dig. She struck the chest and after some hard digging managed to dislodge it and pull it out. At this point she was very scared but opened it anyways. Inside she found "treasure" wrapped in gold and silver paper, a bottle of Bailey's(her favorite), some gold chocolate coins, and a red piece of paper entitled 25 reasons I love Susannah. While she was reading those i took a deep breath, reached in my pocket, and went down on one knee. A look of fear shot over her face, but I knew it was now or never. I told her i loved her madly and asked her would she marry me. She covered her face with her hands and sat down on the ground and started making some incoherent noises. This carried on for several minutes while i good-naturedly kneeled, smiled and generally encouraged. She then proceeded to give me a good grilling while i kneeled there: "Have you asked my Dad?, What did he thinK?, What about my mom? What do Pete and Fio think? Do you like family? Do you want to be part of my family? What do your parents and your brothers think of me? On and on this went for several minutes. I was still smiling away but wishing she would take the ring(a little silver one i bought to propose with). Eventually i could tell she was starting to soften so i took her hand in mine. However, I managed to take the wrong hand, at which point she laughed at me and took the ring and slipped it on her left hand. The moment came so swiftly it shocked me so that i wasn't sure it was real. But in a second we were in each others arms laughing and kissing, the joy of pursuing and being found, the feeling of coming home to your place of true belonging, ah amore. What a wonderful feeling to put yourself out there on a limb with the possibility of falling and have someone catch you.
After a bit, we carried the chest to a grassy spot and she opened her treasure(a box of her favorite belgian chocolates-shells, a bottle of perfume, Bailey's, my favorite t-shirt, and lovely dress from Spain). Then we ran down to the beach to fulfill her engagement ring dream of finding a white pebble at the beach and having it set in a silver. After only about 20 min. looking she found the perfect one, which we will have set in a ring.
Then a lovely little picnic on the beach with cala lilies and roses before heading back to Scotland where her parents were waiting over at my parents house to welcome us home. We had a lovely steak dinner with champagne afterwards, lots of laughter, hugs, pictures, phone calls to family and friends and then we collapsed sunburnt and content on the couch. A lovely end to
the most fabulous of days. She found the treasure chest and I found my treasure!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment